ey repine if
bad weather prevailed at the outset. The worse the weather, the barer
the sailor's kit, the better the market for the captain's commodities.
These slop-chest skippers were perfect terrors to the needy mariner,
and many a physical punishment would be endured so that he might be
saved the ruinous cost of having to buy from his covetous commander,
who was not satisfied with a mere hundred per cent., but regulated his
prices according to the severity of the weather and the demand that
might be made for his goods. These human vultures carried on a
nefarious trade on lines that would have put a Maltese Hebrew to shame.
When the days were radiant with sunshine, and the sea made glassy with
continuous calms, the shrewd sailors who wanted supplies would apply
for them, expecting that they could be had at reduced prices under such
circumstances, but the predatory vendor did not do business on these
occasions; he waited until the poor devils were overcome and punished
by the treacherous icy winds and the mad rush of the waves that tumbled
over them and made their sufferings so acute that they were driven to
ask their captains to supply them with clothing, and the prices charged
were such as to justify the sailors regarding the said captains as the
worst types of usurers. A common phrase of the sailors in referring to
this class of man was that he would not hesitate to rob "Jesus Christ
of his shoe-strings." I have heard these nautical clothiers boast of
how they had worked the oracle so that the wretched men who served
under them would be obliged to come and on their knees beg that they
might be forgiven for not taking the articles when offered, and that
they might have them now when they had seen their error. Of course only
the wasters would put themselves in any such position. A captain who
traded in this way had a right to cover himself for the risk he ran,
but it was a wicked imposition to charge more than a reasonable profit
for clothing, tobacco, or postages. In settling up at the end of a
voyage, the overcharges were frequently contested, and I have known
cases where a substantial reduction was enforced. The rate of exchange
at which the advances to the crew abroad were worked was invariably one
that realized a profit to the captain and caused grave suspicion that a
petty theft was being committed. Captains used to brag that they made
as much as their wages came to by the sales from their slop-chests and
tobacco